Results of HPSSC-conducted exams whose papers were not leaked will be declared within 3 months: HP CM

NEW DELHI: The results of examinations conducted by the erstwhile Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission (HPSSC) whose papers were not leaked and sold would be declared within three months, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said in the Assembly on Wednesday.

Leak of question papers of 14 examinations conducted by the commission has been confirmed and 65 people have been arrested, he said, replying to a question on unemployment in the state during the Question Hour. Investigations into these leaks are in progress, he said. Refuting the allegation of the opposition that the government was cheating the youth in the name of employment, Sukhu retorted that question papers were leaked and sold during the erstwhile BJP government, but the present government scrapped the commission after cases of leak and selling of papers surfaced.

The government decided to scrap the HPSSC and replace it with the Himachal Pradesh Rajya Chayan Aayog to bring transparency and there would be minimum manual intervention and all the selections would be through a computerised process and results would be declared in 10 days, he said. He said that so far results of 329 candidates have been declared and 300 more would be declared soon. Earlier, leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur stated that about 3,500 job aspirants have been left in the middle of nowhere as the state government decided to disband the commission rather than taking action against the guilty. In a supplementary question, Thakur asked when the results would be declared.

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Sukhu said that the government would fulfil the guarantee of giving five lakh jobs in five years and 10,000 recruitments would be made during the current year. Changes are in the offing in the Labour and Employment Department, he said. In addition to data on the registered unemployment youth, details of the youth who have been given employment would also be available through “track and trace” method, he added. Earlier, replying to the original question of Congress members Kewal Singh Pathania and Chetanya Sharma, Health and Family Planning Minister Dhani Ram Shandil said that there are eight lakh unemployed people registered with the employment exchange in the state.

He said that 39,773 youths were given employment from January 1, 2020 to January 1, 2023 and the unemployment rate of the state was four per cent which is lower than most of the states. The unemployment rate in rural areas is 5.5 per cent among men and 2.6 per cent among women, while in urban areas it was 4.9 per cent and 17.3 percent respectively. The unemployment rate was 3.3 per cent in 2021-22 and the government is taking effective steps to strengthen the economy and reduce the rate, he added.